Spring Break begins!

The sun is shining warm and inviting. The flowers are spreading their scent in the air. On my drive home I smell the orange blossoms. In the front yard it is jasmine, freesias, and orchids. It looks, feels, and smells like spring. I am so excited to have some time off to enjoy it all.
Here's a japanese dendrobium.

A cymbidium

A dark "red" iris

Spring beauty

It was a lovely sunset...
The irises are beginning to pop. There are lots of buds just about to open. Hope you don't get too bored before they're done.
A clump of light blue tall bearded iris
an arilbred iris
Byzantine Beauty - another arilbred

More irises

Here are a few more flowers blooming in the yard today.

Monday in Spring

It was another pretty day. Here are two more irises blooming today.

Spring Blooms

Worked on cleaning and moving plants on my front porch today. Here are some of my australian dendrobiums. I have been avoiding looking outside much for a while. I neglected everything and then we had the snow and cold temperatures for so long. I was afraid everything was going to be dead. Not so!


Here are some other flowers around the yard. It's definitely Spring!
A Red Freesia
'Darkling', a miniature tall bearded iris. It is a rebloomer and surprises me sometimes throughout the year.
A Pink Alstroemeria
Didn't do much knitting this weekend.

San Diego Orchid Show

Went to see the San Diego Orchid show at the Scottish Rite Center in Mission Valley today. My friend Leigh Ann, my daughter, and I drove down especially to hang out with Ramona. She is the coolest!
Here's Islander Delights - Ramona Wilson's Display - LOVE her Australian dendrobiums!!!
One of Dispays as you enter the show












Here are a few of my favorites as I looked around the show. It smelled as good as it looked in there. You should have smelled my car on the way home with all our fragrant new orchids. Too bad mine will have to compete with the jasmine blooming on my front porch.




Here are Leigh Ann and Ramona at her Islander Delights booth. See those Australian dendrobiums behind them? I can attest to the hardiness of these wonderful orchids. Mine have been neglected with little water or fertilizer and were outside for the duration of our cold winter this year and I still have spikes coming from almost every one of them. Ramona grows them beautifully so she's got clouds of these little blooms around her.





Met my friends Ginger and Rick at Fillipi's in Little Italy for pizza and antipasto. Wow, this place has become very popular. This is the line as we left. There is a line all the way throught the store to the restaurant in back as well as all the people you see out front.

The Farm Lottery

We have a wonderful group of schools near us based upon Maria Montessori's methods. My youngest two children both attended one of them through 5th grade. They then each came to my public school for 6th grade. My son is enamored with the bands and music education at my school and wants to continue on to our high school where there is a very talented music teacher with two guitar degrees. My daughter, despite having an eventful year (being on the championship winning volleyball team and being in two plays in drama), would really like to go back to most of her friends. In order to do so we have had to enter the lottery for entry to "The Farm."
The Farm is an actual farm based upon Montessori's ideal environment for adolescents. The Farm seeks to be self-supporting and provide a quality education in a nurturing community. I have long yearned to be part of this experience myself.
So..., last night was the lottery. My daughter was drawn as the first person on the waitng list after the guaranteed slots were filled in her grade level. Unfortunately for us two other students on the waiting list had siblings who were accepted to the school, so they were moved to the highest slots on the waiting list. Since the school is conservative in the number of guaranteed slots we do have an excellent chance of our daughter being accepted as we approach the end of the school year. We still probably will have to wait with baited breath to find out whether some of her friends who were farther down on the waiting list are able to attend. She is still very excited.

New Project

I started a new wrap today. It is made of a thin mohair and egyptian cotton with a little sheen. I am using a Colinette pattern that calls for silk and mohair. I couldn't find a silk that went with the mohair I found. I found this cotton at Velona's. I wish they'd had one more skein and Enchanted Unicorn had one more skein of the mohair. It looks like this one will not be as long as in the pattern.

Merlin found a comfy place to rest. Ahhh to be a cat and only have to worry about where and how long to take your naps.

First Socks

I am so excited! My first socks are done. They're made of red Stampato Extra yarn from my trip to Old Forge Hardware. For some reason they remind me of my grandfather and my mother. I think they must have had tweedy red sweaters or something like that I vaguely remember. I think socks should feel like this. Comfortable and familiar.

Tonight was so cool!

Thank you Sheila and Tim for letting us use your box at the Honda Center! We had a blast!!!








OhMyGod! What a cool night! My friend Leigh Ann shared tickets with us for Eric Clapton's concert at the Honda Center. It was wonderful from start to finish. We were in box seats with some very nice people. We ordered food and drinks in. We were able to walk around in privacy. The bathrooms were nice.
The concert was awesome. We all had such a wonderful time. It was an amazing St. Patrick's Day. Did I mention I am a big Eric Clapton fan from years back.







My husband and son play Clapton songs enough that my daughter even recognized some of the songs. We had such a great time. Thank you for your generosity and friendship Leigh Ann. You gave us a once in a lifetime experience.





My cousin says I don't have to go to church today. I saw God last night...

Belated St.Patrick'sday

This was actually our Fat Friday spread at school on the 16th...Lots of green!

Sock progress

Here are what my Noro Kureyon 'Toasty Toes' socks looked like when I was waiting for my flight home at JFK airport.









Here they are after going to Knitting Knight at Yarn Deli.

These are my Red Stampato Extra Merino socks. I was able to knit both cuffs and heel flaps from the time I cast on in Syracuse, changed planes at JFK and flew home to California. Here they are today after wrestling with a problem with gusset holes yesterday. Thanks again Sharon!










Here are Leigh Ann's Malabrigo Toasty Toes. She sent this to me a few days ago. We're both working on the issue of gusset holes so going is slow right now.